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Good Afternoon,
Did you just change the way that the AIG travel insurance shows up on quotes and bookings? I thought I saw an optional line item show up on either quotes or bookings or both. I thought there was an optional check box and a 7% charge that would appear if checked. Now there just seems to be a link to the insurance purchase page, which is fine, since it looks clearer that we are not getting the money. Just trying to get a handle on how that works and appears to guests . . .
And on that 2nd question about security deposit holds, yes you can have the guest do a hold by credit card even if they paid by check (assuming you have a credit card payment method configured).
Under the booking > security deposit tab, you'll see a guest link. They can use that link to submit a security deposit. There will also be a reminder email sent to them several days before their arrival (based on your property rules) which will give them the same link and ask them to send in a security deposit. Look at the booking > security deposit tab and make sure the reminder is turned on.
Hi Nancy,
Once you've recorded the booking and charges, and you've recorded the payment they made, you can send them the guest payment link under the booking > payment page. Open that link yourself in another browser tab and you'll see what it looks like. From there, they can select a payment method to pay you with. If you have check configured as a payment method, they can select it and it will show them who and where to send the check to. Does that make sense?
-Michelle
Actually I asked this same question back in April, but I'm still having a problem.
Here's what I just did: I cancelled the old booking, then filled out a new quote for the Johnsons showing that they had already paid $500 toward the total. They had asked me for a breakdown of charges so I wanted to send them an invoice/payment request that reflected that.
I converted the quote to a booking since they have already paid their reservation deposit of $500 by check a long time ago before I was on OwnerRez.
I am confused now how to send them a payment request. They want to pay by check.
Also, if I had already imported this back during the trial period, will I have to pay for this booking? I don't really mind doing that but I have about six or seven upcoming that I will have to do this same thing to, and I want to be sure I understand if I might have a simpler way to do all of this.
Sorry for the confusion...
Hey guys, I made some mistakes months ago when I first started on OwnerRez, when importing a bunch of bookings I'd made through other means. I didn't understand the process at the time and it's been a while since I've had a booking other than through AirBnB, so I'm not quite sure how to fix it.
So basically I have some upcoming guests for this fall and winter that I have listed in OwnerRez under "Bookings" when in fact they don't know what they owe, what they've paid, and when the next payment is due. For example, the couple coming in October, the Johnsons, have paid me $500 but owe me the full balance this month. I can't find a way to send them an invoice with a breakdown and payment request without it triggering me for their credit card number, which I do not have.
Also, can you tell me how I can handle security deposit "holds" when they only pay by check. Can I have the system ask them for a credit card hold as well when the time comes due?
Thanks!
Great response! Works well. Thanks so much.
We just pushed up a hotfix that adds this support. You can now go into the reports section and choose "arrival" or "departure" instead of just "dates of stay".
Let me know if this solves the query for you.
That's a good idea! I'll have a look-see and figure out if there is a way to add that option in addition to booked vs stay selection.
Thank you so much, I see that. However, what I notice is that when I use "booked dates" the reports base the month on the beginning of the stay, not the end of the stay. If someone check in 7/28 and leaves 8/8 the income and taxes are shown in July, not August. The issue is, trust accounting wise, until the guest leaves, in this case in August, the money is not "earned" yet and from a tax perspective (here in the US Virgin Islands we have a monthly hotel tax) the tax is considered "collected" the month of check out, in this case August.
Is there a way to have the "dates of stay" or some other filter recognize the check out date instead of the check in date for the sake or reporting?
-- Chris
Hi Chris,
Welcome!
That is, in fact, the default way taxes are treated in our system. We do that because we recommend that VR owners remit taxes for the month of the stay, not the month of the booking/payment. If a booking is canceled, it's hard to get tax money back once remitted.
When viewing taxes in the reports (Reports > Taxes or Line Item Summary) there are options to display the taxes for "dates of stay" or "booked dates" and dates of stay is selected by default.
-Michelle
I am brand new to OwnerRez, so this is probably simple. I want the income, taxes or fees to be shown in the month that the guest departs, not the month they book or pay? Is there an easy way to do this?
Have you tried using the search box at the very top of the screen? That should do a search across bookings, quotes, inquiries by name, email, etc.
My other system was able to retrieve bookings past and present by imputing their last name or first name and I was able to look at the reservation from the past and see what I charged and any notes.
Now I am searching manually.
Marji
Property Manager for Monterey Bay Vacations
831-247-5532
Thanks for that follow-up information. I believe the templates do currently send the To emails together (like a normal email message where you can see all the To's together) but I need to confirm that for you. We are planning on enhancing email templates quite a bit, and I know CC fields are going to be added. Have you considered using a group email address? For instance something like "north-property-team@domain.com" where north-property-team is a group that includes everyone you want included? They could then all see it and respond. That's not a very elegant way of handling it, but it might also work for part of this.
Just to add: one of the reasons why this would be very useful would once everybody is included in the same email "reply all" can be used to keep the conversation and everyone informed.
At my own rentals I do everything myself, none of this is necessary, but for the ones that I help run this becomes a little bit complicated when it comes to communication with everyone involved.
Ella
Good morning Michelle! :)
I'm looking to add specific email addresses to templates that later are sent by triggers. For example have the same email sent out to the cleaning crew, owner, building manager with a reminder that guests are checking in in two days. The way I have it setup right now is identical emails being sent separately to each email address. This works, however it would be easier if everybody sees that the email was sent to all of them. It really does not matter if it's in the "To:" field or "CC:" field.
If I use comma (,) or semicolon (;), will the sent folder show me these per person ( delivered, opened etc) or as one?
Will they each see the others included in the emails when they open it, the way normal emails would work?
Thank you.
Thank you Michelle. I hope it appears soon!
Good morning Ella!
Yes and no. If you're using field codes, the To field will automatically pick up all the booking email addresses of the guest when filling in the email. The main field code for the booking email (BGEMAIL) automatically does that. You can test that out.
Are you looking for that or looking for a separate CC line?
I believe you can also use comma (,) or semicolon (;) to separate regular email addresses in the template as well.
Good morning!
We don't have that kind of widget out yet, but we do have plans to add it. It will basically be the ribbon widget (showing horizontal stacked availability) with the availability to click into that to start a quote - exactly as you described.
I was just asked by a person building my website whether there is a widget that is not a form but rather looks like calendar widget, except you can click on check-in date, check out date, and it will generate quote for that time period (instead of populating of the form). Sort of hybrid of availability calendar with quote widget. Is this available? thanks
Hello, :)
I think I've asked about this before but I couldn't find it on the Forum.
Is there a way to add multiple email addresses to the "To:" field or CC addresses for template emails? This would be very helpful.
Thank you.
Ella
Are you looking for a one time export or is this something you'll do regularly?
We haven't announced it yet, but our most recent update added a detailed charges view on the inquiry widget, which may help there as well.
In Lieu of rate widget, is there a way to download rates in a form of excel or similar? thanks
thank you, that is what I thought!
Good morning!
The photo and description areas of the property are items that will be used mostly in upcoming features. The photos will be shown as thumbnails by property, be selectable/usable in email templates and used in our upcoming Hosted Sites feature (owner websites).
There are some beta features that a limited group of users are using already that use photos and descriptions, but most users will not see those features yet.
In order to use images in email templates, right now, you have to edit the HTML of the template directly using the HTML button on the editor. If you need help with that, send a message to help@ and we'll help you configure it.
I have loaded the pictures of my property. But I cannot see anyplace where they are displayed or visible to anyone but me. I cannot embed any of the photos I loaded into property profile into the email templates either. Are photos for some future functionality and not currently used for anything? thank you
Yes, it's a bit confusing. We have that setting on there because if there is a comment on the inquiry at all (even a "are you available?") some users don't want the Auto Responder to kick in because they are worried that the person asked a question that won't be answered in the automatic response. So any inquiry with a comment (which is most of them) aren't auto responded to.
In your case, if you don't care about that, definitely check that option to respond even if comment is present.
Sorry again for the confusion. We are working on fleshing out the Auto Responder with more settings and clarity. It's being moved to global settings where you can pick multiple property/season criteria and also specify time of day (eg. don't auto respond during daytime hours but do auto respond in the evening).
No. All the VHR emails I have had to date do not trigger auto-response. I suppose they have 'comments' in a sense that traveler writes something like "interested in staying with my two kids, wife and parents at your cabin". Is that a comment? I thought "comment" was a reply to a reply, i.e if the traveler responded to my quote email with a follow up question or comment. if this is what it is, then I do understand - I have to change auto-reponders to respond when there are even comments presen. Correct?
Hi!
Auto Responders work no matter where the inquiry originated - even if it's from an email from a listing site.
Is there something different about the inquiry you got from VHR that would make it so the Auto Responder wouldn't kick in?
Perhaps the inquiry had a comment on it and your Auto Responder settings don't kick in if there's a comment?
Do i understand correctly that auto responders work only when inquiry comes via inquiry widget? I notice that when I have received a "quotable" inquiry via a widget, it has been auto-repsoned to; however when I get an inquiry via email (such as from vacation Home rentals) I have to create quote myself and trigger quote email. Is my understanding correct or I have to change some setting somewhere? thanks
